nodded with the whisky on his mind.
“Birk?”
“Yes sir,” The dog bark voice seemed unsure.
“I need you to hang around here a little more, okay?” He had a hard time making eye contact with him. “I think our nurse seems to be elsewhere.”
“Yes sir,” Birk replied and then added. “It’s a big place, I think she wanders.”
“Okay, just make sure you take care of my people.” He finally found the courage to look at him. Yes, he was okay with this. The Alabama boy and his soon to be Lieutenant, emotions and check lists made strange bedfellows.
*
For a second, it looked like an optical illusion. As her hiking shoes padded down the hallway it became clear. It was a sliver of darkness, a crescent that shouldn’t have been there. It circled the massive entrance almost perfectly from top to bottom. Molly felt her curiosity begin to pique as she took a wary look around for other eyes that might be watching.
The door to the vault, it was ever so slightly open........
Molly found herself breathing slowly as she slipped up the stairs to the second floor and approached the massive oval entrance. It was slightly ajar. There was a moment where she almost paused in her slow and quiet walk. It just felt strange, wrong and out of place. Like a trap, a big piece of cheese beckoning the mouse.
Her hands touched the surface. There was a finite layer of dust on the silver steel skin. Her first push was just a test. It barely moved. Then, when she pushed a little harder with both hands there was motion. It was amazing how something so heavy could swing open with ease. Molly just wanted it open enough to slide in. No sense making this any more obvious to anyone passing by.
The room took her breath away for a second. A full two stories high, as deep as it was wide. She carefully walked down the first set of stairs that she could find. There was an elevator nearby that looked more than capable of hauling heavy loads. Her feet touched the concrete and she began an almost dream like walk along the floor. The gurneys were here and there scattered about like shopping carts in a grocery store parking lot. There were steel jail bars that extended from floor to ceiling on her right side while the left was nothing but double reinforced concrete. There was a feeling of infinity about the room, like it was larger on the inside than the entire complex. Her eyes looked up to the ceiling with more than a touch of wonder as the hanging lights paid witness to the lone visitor. Molly could not help but feel like she was the first person who had been here in a long time. The immensity of the space felt larger by the minute. It felt like being in a tomb of a lost civilization.
It was empty.
“I had heard you were here.” It was a man’s voice. It had more than a touch of an intellectual northeastern accent. His voice could echo through the halls of Princeton and Harvard confidently. He stepped out of a corner with a disarming smile and a slight frame. His blue eyes glittered like Caribbean water behind a pair of wire rimmed glasses. There were a few wisps of blonde hair hanging down from his mostly bald head. They were like bangs, trying to hide the lines of time on his forehead.
“I know you.” Molly’s dreamlike state continued, she pointed at him and tried to remember the face.
“Nelson Anson Bryant.” He extended his hand and Molly took it. His fingers felt frail like a Japanese origami creation. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You’re the secretary of the treasury.” Molly heard herself say.
“I was.” Bryant nodded his head and suddenly his smile took on a mood of sadness.
“Where is all the gold?” Molly leaned a little closer.
“It’s not here, Molly.” Bryant’s voice had a sense of finality to it. “Not anymore.”
“Then where is it?” She focused the question on his glittering, intelligent eyes.
“That would take some explaining.” He walked over to the stairs and seated himself on the third step up. “Do you have some time to hear an old man’s story?”
“For you, I’ve got all day.” Molly rolled one of the trolleys over and reclined into it like it was pool side chair. She crossed her legs, a signal that she was ready to listen.
“Well,” He paused for a second, trying to find a starting point. “Do you remember what the FIAT system is when it comes to international currencies?”
“Sorry,” Molly went for a disarming apology with a smile and big brown eyes. “It’s been a few years since our last talk.”
“Of course,” he smiled, she remembered him as patient, charming and straight forward. For a minute, Molly marveled at an era that had raised gentlemen like these. He continued: “The FIAT system bases the worth of a nation’s currencies on the confidence people have in the money.”
“That’s it?” Molly had to arch an eyebrow at that one.
“The confidence in the money reflects the confidence people have in our country. The power of its industrial base, the ability of the people to pay taxes which fills the treasuries, the stability of the government.”
“Not gold?”
“No,” He calmly answered her question. “The FIAT system is not linked to any physical reserves, just confidence.”
“Is that why we had a currency crisis when the world went to hell?” Molly was catching up and keeping pace. She was starting to grasp the concept.
“Absolutely,” He nodded slowly. “But in that first year, do you think anyone really worried about money?”
“No,” Molly’s voice was a whisper now. It came back like a slow wave rolling into the room. The panic, always the panic was the first thing she remembered. Molly had so many days where she didn’t go home, an office and a few coats for blankets was her bed. She would catch a few hours sleep and be back in front of the cameras. Looking at maps and charts was like watching wildfires break out all over the country, it was overwhelming. It felt like we were just hanging on, losing our grip slowly and succumbing to the force of a nightmare.
“Five years ago, eighty per cent of our industry was in cities that we had to abandon.” He read her facial expression very well. “Over half of our population had died. The rest were refugees on the move.”
“All confidence was gone, everywhere.” His tone was somber, even through this his eyes sparkled like electric water. “Not just in our country, everywhere.”
“Hence,” He concluded. “So many currencies collapsed, including ours.”
“So we went back to the gold exchange.” Molly surmised.
“Exactly,” He nodded with a half-smile. “It was the only thing we could do to stabilize our currencies.”
“So where is the gold?” Molly had to ask, jumping to the chase.
“This is where it gets a bit complicated.............”
*
The Commander watched them at the fence. His curiosity became
